CO129-495 - Governor Sir Clementi - 1926 [11-12] — Page 141

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foreign intervention en a fairly large male could effectively prevent or remedy a local condition moh

as is now pictured?

Should the Nationalists proceed to extrases, the military direction of affairs would he in the

handa of Chiang Kai-shak, a man who is described by two of his close acquaintances as a dangerous, unscrupulous adventurer of violent temperament who,

for his own purposes, has adapted the extreme

principles of Bolanavim, and who will sick at nothing

to achieve nis anda. To what extent he is in the

hands of his party or of his fissian advisers I m

unable to say •

Bat while two of the four divisions

under his cœvannd are definitely "Red" in the trus

sense of the tem, and entirely leyal to Iduself

(as I am told is the cnas), thers is little chance of his personality being eliminated until the moderate party regains control of the movement of which at prosent he is the principal figure and the mear head.

I know that a situation of the kind indiestød is visualised as a possibility by the authorities and leading nationals of at least one country in Shanghai whose interests would be very seriously affected. I knew also that a similar view is held by the Chinere to whom I have spoken, whose names are

girm

earlier in this memorandum •

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